Reconciliation by Walt Whitman

Analysis

"Reconciliation" is a poem written by Walt Whitman. This poem is about how the author was angry with someone who has since died. Now, when he is at the man's funeral, he forgives him and then kisses him on his face. He states that "For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead". Perhaps the man was his father.

This poem is written as one stanza with seven lines.

Poem

ReconciliationBy Walt Whitman
Word over all, beautiful as the sky,
Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again
and ever again, this soiled world;
For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin - I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.